The Month in Grime / Dubstep

If you like dubstep but didn't reach DMZ's fourth incredible Brixton bash, where were ya? Journalists had travelled from as far as Eastern Europe to attend, while one DJ, America's Joe Nice, had journeyed from even further afield.

Like many musical circles, the inner confines of dubstep are not easy to breach. If there are parallels between South London and Baltimore, they're not obvious, but Joe Nice has found some. Sure there are other DJs in the U.S. who play dubstep releases, but if the brutal truth be told, if you're not playing new music, you're not truly contributing. Joe knows this truth, and came armed to the recent DMZ with a stack of dubs.

Dubplates, however, do not a DJ make. Anyone can invest, others still can pester for unreleased beats, but the magic truly comes when a new vision, greater than the sum of the dubs, is seen. Joe's DMZ set did this. It was important not because it was a perfect balance between cerebral selection and physical energy, though it was both those things, but because it was built using dubs collected outside of the very top producers. It might seem lost in the mists of urban time, but UK garage's first wave circa '96 was in many ways driven by drum & bass' closed inner circle. Producers, finding themselves locked out, looked elsewhere and the result was 2step.

Arguably this year's top dubstep DJ, Youngsta'srecent setshave been a masterclass in vision and selection, exercising editorial control to define a distinct sound. But could they fall prey to the mistakes made by the junglists almost a decade ago? Spread over an hour, his recent excellent Dubstep Allstars 2 mix CD might have touched on all flavours from electronica to dub, cinematics to breaks and back via some UR epics, but it was done using the music of only four producers.

What hope for talented dubstep producers like Shackleton, Appleblim, Pinch, L Wiz, Random Trio, Kode 9, Burial, Distance, and Scuba who strive to contribute? Certainly DJ Hatcha has opened his sets to the latter two, but perhaps hope for them all rests with Joe Nice, or other hot up and coming Rinse FM DJs N-Type and Chef.

With dubsteps' steady upward progress in 2005, few people have had more hype than Chef's mate Skream-- probably because few people produce as many dozens of quality dubs as Skream. The hype around this 19-year-old Croydon producer shows no signs of abating. After nine months of dubplate batterage, his anthem "Request Line", has now been adopted by the grime massive, including no less than the genre's top boys, Roll Deep.

After years as distant, estranged cousins, it's difficult to overstate how unique and momentous this convergence feels. Despite the sound's five year existence, "Request Line" is the first dubstep tune ever to be played by grime DJs. Many movers amongst the dubstep community have held grime's achievements of the last three years in high regard, but the respect has not always been returned.

The signs of change began earlier this year, when grime visionary Wiley began appearing at club Forward>>. Over the summer it became common place to see Jammer or Sier in skanking the venue, or hear Skepta and Riko on the mic. The ground work by the Rinse FM management (look out for their new mix package "Rinsessions Vol 1"), long since Forward>> supporters, was beginning to manifest itself in the MCs.

Then Skepta took it to the next level. On the mic at Forward>> in August, he apologised to the crowd for taking so long to get into the sound. Augmented by his status as arguably the hottest MC in grime right now, he since took it upon himself to rewind "Request Line" multiple times on Roll Deep's flagship Rinse FM show throughout August and September. (Check the audio here: Bigup Nandi Lioness, one of grime's few female DJs, for spreading the word).

To some outside observers they might appear separate, but from a London perspective, the two sounds have much in common. Both dark mutations of the UK garage genetic blueprint, they evolved in parallel. They are both products of particular urban city demographics, with grime bound by a more tight east London circle, dubstep a broader, more south-centred catchment. Nonetheless they are both reflections of London's dark underbelly and now that they are exchanging ideas, it could prove beneficial to grime as well as dubstep, given the latter's history of self sufficiency and the formers' glass ceiling for the vast majority of MCs' major label careers.

Skream, who drops a pair of dark collaborations with Loefah on Tectonic and perhaps even some Tempa doublepacks next year, is surely destined to be signed: A high-powered indie such as XL, Warp, or !K7 would be foolish not to snap up a man so obviously knee deep in unreleased classics and glorious technicoloured tones. How many other producers can you say have MC/producers of the calibre and status of Skepta gagging to vocal their tune?

Skepta's had a good month-- for merking that is. If you follow grime, you'll be used to the scene's relentless anger. But even by those standards, the Roll Deep show has reached new levels of intensity. Why? Because war's been declared again.

In the earliest days of grime (2002-3), Wiley instigated the art of clashing, dragging with him standards of lyricism and levels of street hype. Some of the most intense lyrical battles and prolonged personal vendettas like Wiley v Durrty Goodz (then Doogz) or Crazy Titch v Dizzee Rascal, kept the capital locked. While they might storm the pop charts by day, by night Roll Deep are a well-oiled war machine. Like the Manchester United or New York Yankees of grime, the rolling (sic) line up over the years has featured ex-member Dizzee Rascal, ex-Nasty Crew Jammer, ex-OT Crew Sier B, ex-Bomb Squad Trim, Meridian's Skepta and JME, ex-Pay As U Go members Gods Gift and Riko, and has been orchestrated by linchpin Wiley to ensure incredible levels aggression and hype are maintained.

Even though the crew are capable of such poignant anti-violence tunes like Geneus ft Wiley, Riko and Breeze's "Knife and Gun", or disco pop like the new wedding-tastic single "Shake-a-Leg", war is what Roll Deep do best. But can the levels continue to go indefinitely upwards? Skepta is currently calling out Van Damage from SLK, Jookie Mundo, and the whole of East Co. The entire crew are spitting pure gun lyrics. Mesmerizing Rinse FM radio is one thing. All-out war on the roads is another. How long before it spills over to visible violence-- and the scene is knocked backwards?